Container and closure with bayonet fastening means



Jan. 2, 1968 w MATTHEWS ET AL 3,361,290

CONTAINER AND CLOSURE WITH BAYONET FASTENING MEANS Filed Aug. 20, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 IO 9 ll I0 FIG.

INVENTORS R. w. MATTHEWS y E. ROBINSON FIG. 6 T. E. BRANSCUM W ATTOR EYS Jan. 2, 1968 v w M H ET AL. 3,361,290

' CONTAINER AND CLOSURE WITH BAYONET FASTENING MEANS Filed Aug. 20, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 F/G 3 INVENTORS R. wv MATTHEWS BY L. E. ROBINSON T. E. BRANSCUM Jan. 2, 1968' R. W. MATTHEWS ET AL 3,361,290

CONTAINER AND CLOSURE WITH BAYONET FASTENING MEANS 3 Sheets-$heei 3 Filed Aug. 20, 1965 FIG. 3

INVENTORS R. w MATTHEWS BY L. E ROBINSON T. E. BRANSCUM United States Patent 3,361,291) CONTAINER AND CLOSURE WITH BAYONET FASTENING MEANS Robert W. Matthews and Leroy E. Robinson, Bartlesville,

Okla, and Tony E. Branscum, Winfield, Kane, assignors to Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 20, 1965, Ser. No. 481,309 6 lClaims. (Cl. 229-40) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLQSURE Receptacle having a body portion and a top portion, both portions carrying individual, spaced apart thread means that coact to lock the top portion onto the body portion, the top portion having a handle means supported by a plurality of upstanding bosses, and an intermediate article for making the receptacle.

This invention relates to a new and improved covered receptacle.

Heretofore, covered receptacles such as trash cans have primarily utilized substantially only frictional contact between the cover member or top and the body or receptacle portion. Generally, in order to be of any functional value this frictional contact had to be of a substantial nature in which case removal of the top is difiicult, especially when the receptacle is empty and/ or only one hand is available to effect such removal. Also, oftentimes repeated removal of the top is effected only with substantial damage to the top itself and particularly the handle means fixed to the top.

It has now been found that a covered receptacle can be formed without reliance upon frictional contacts and from which the top member can be easily removed with substantially no damage thereto by employing a plurality of spaced apart, outwardly extending, downwardly sloped thread means attached to the upper periphery of the body portion of the receptacle adjacent the top thereof and a similar plurality of thread means, which slope downwardly in the same manner as the thread means on the body portion, on the lower periphery of the cover member adjacent its bottom. By the use of these thread members the top can be placed down over the body portion and the thread members of the top caused to engage the thread members of the body portion by twisting the top relative to the body portion thereby easily locking the top into the body portion without resort to substantial friction forces.

Further according to this invention the top is itself substantially rigidified thereby resisting damage upon removal and the like, by employing a handle means which is spaced above and extending substantially across the top and which is attached to the top through a plurality of bosses located at either end of and the substantial midpoint of the handle means. 'Ihese bosses accumulativelyf cover a substantial area of the top as well as the handle means and thereby very significantly strengthen that top.

Also, according to this invention a closed, hollow article is produced of the configuration of the receptacle and top as set forth above wherein the top is joined to the body of the receptacle and adapted to be severed therefrom to produce the final product.

In this invention the term thread means is employed to denote a separate, distinct, raised portion which can be employed to abut or enmesh with a similar raised portion thereby forming a locking means between the two members holding the two raised portions. Also, by use of the term boss it is meant to denote a protrusion or protuberance of varying cross sectional configurations 3,361,290 Patented Jan. 2, 1968 which is attached to a defined plane surface but raises above that surface to a varying extent.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved covered receptacle.

Other aspects, objects, and the several advantages of this invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description, the drawings, and the appended claims.

FIGURE 1 shows an article from which the receptacle of this invention can be formed.

FIGURE 2 shows a receptacle embodying this invention.

FIGURE 3 shows a cross section of a thread means according to this invention.

FIGURE 4 shows a cover member embodying this invention.

FIGURE 5 shows a cross section of the cover member of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 6 shows a top view of an alternate cover member embodying this invention.

FIGURE 1 shows a one-piece closed article which can be formed by any suitable method such as blow molding in any conventional manner well known in the art of a thermoplastic material such as polyethylene.

The article of FIGURE 1 shows a body portion 1 having handle means 2 and outwardly extending, downwardly sloped thread means 3, 3. Above thread means 3 is a transitional Zone 4 above which extends cover member 5.

Cover member 5 has similarly located and oriented, inwardly extending thread means 6, 6 and stop members '7, '7 thereon for limiting the extent of underlapping of thread members 6 relative to thread members 3'. In other words the upper ends 8, 8 of thread means 3 will abut stop members '7 thereby limiting the extent to which cover member 5 can be rotated when placed over the open end of body portion 1. It should be noted that although thread means 5 are generally shown to extend inwardly of cover member 5, they can also be made toextend outwardly from cover member 5 so that thread means 3 would fit into or mesh with the valley (see 31, FIGURE 3) formed by the outwardly extending thread means 6.

Handle means 9 of cover member 5 is attached to the cover member through end bosses 10, 10 and midpoint boss 11. As shown in FIGURE 4 midpoint boss 7 can have therein a vent hole and it is obvious that one or more similar such holes can be employed in bosses 10 in lieu of or in addition to the vent in boss 11.

In order to form the receptacle of this invention from the article of FIGURE 1 all that is necessary is to saw through the flange denoted by the area 12 transverse to the longitudinal axis of the article thereby substantially completely removing that flange and severing cover member 5 from body portion 1. Thereafter the lower end of cover member 5 will be an edge in the area 13 of substantially the same thickness as side 14 of cover member 5-. Also thereafter, the top of body portion 1 will be an upstanding edge in the area 15 of substantially the same thickness as that of the rest of body portion 1.

FIGURE 2 shows a completed receptacle after the flange 12 of FIGURE 1 has been removed and cover member 5 slipped down over the outer periphery of body portion 1 and twisted clockwise so that thread means 6 abut the bottom side of thread means 3. The area of contact of the top edge of thread means 6 with the bottom edge of member 7 is denoted by the reference numeral 20. It can be seen that handle means 2 is complemented as to the shape of a lifting hand by indented curved member 21 thereby allowing a good grasp of the receptacle to be made.

Also shown in FIGURE 2 is the remainder of body portion 1 including inwardly formed bottom member 22.

FIGURE 3 shows a cross section which is suitable for either thread means 3 or d which comprises a hill 36 and a valley 31. This type of thread means is easily formed in a blow molding operation. Although the thread means 3 and 6 can take any desired form as long as the function of twisting-interlocking is maintained, generally the pre ferred form is that shown in FIGURE 1 with a cross section of that shown in FIGURE 3. The location and spacing of the thread means can vary as desired but are preferably spaced 90 from one another and 45 from the ends of handle means 9 if that handle means was extended through bosses it) to the edge of cover member 5. A preferred degree of downward sloping of thread means 3 and 6 is a 4 /2 inch pitch with a length of about inches as measured on the periphery. The extent to which thread means 3 or 6 stand out from the periphery plane to which they are attached will vary widely but is preferably from about A to 1 inch.

FIGURE 4 shows cover member 5 including vent hole 4t) as described in FIGURE 1 and handle holes 41, 41.

FIGURE 5 shows a cross section of the cover member of FIGURE 4 which shows that handle means 9 can be hollow as well as solid as desired since the rigidifying effect is achieved by bosses 1t? and 11.

FIGURE 6 shows another type of cover member which can be utilized in lieu of that shown in FIGURE 4. The cover member of FIGURE 6 substitutes smaller bosses 50, St) for hemispherical bosses ltl of FIGURE 4 but also utilizes larger bosses 51, 51 in lieu of boss 11 of FIGURE 4, which bosses extend from handle means 9 outwardly to the edge of cover member 5. Thus, substantial strengthening of cover member 5 is effected by a different arrangement of bosses but which arrangement still covers a substantial area of the top of cover member 5.

Generally, the receptacles of this invention can be formed from any thermoplastic material well known in the art such as the polyolefins, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, polyesters, polyamides, and the like as well as thermoplastic rubbery materials, all of which are well known in the art. A particularly preferred class of thermoplastics are those formed from the mono-1- olefins having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms per molecule.

Generally, any conventional and well known forming method can be employed to make receptacles of this invention, such methods including blow molding, injection molding, stamping, casting and the like. A particularly suitable method is that described with respect to FIGURE 1 wherein a unitary closed article is blow molded after which the top portion is severed and used as the cover member for the lower or body portion.

Reasonable variations and modifications are possible within the scope of this disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

We claim:

1. A closed, hollow article comprising a body portion having an upwardly curved base that defines a circumferential rib which is peripheral to said base and which extends downwardly from said base to provide leg means for supporting said article on a substrate and upstanding side wall means depending from the periphery of said base, said side wall means having near the upper edge thereof handles defined by at least two indentations extending from the outer surface of said side wall means into the interior of said body, said indentations being on substantially opposite sides of said body portion and having a substantially flat upper surface for gripping, said side wall means having in a plane substantially perpendicular to the vertical axis of said body a single row of separated individual thread means, each of said separate, individual thread means having a fixed length with definite end points thereon, the end points of each single thread means being spaced a substantial distance from the end joints of the adjacent thread means in said single row of thread means, each of said thread means having one end point higher than the other on said side means so that each thread means slants downwardly from said high end point to the other end point thereof, each thread means having the same end point as the high end point so that each individual thread means slants downwardly in the same direction as the remaining individual thread means, the upper edge of said side wall means being defined by a substantially flat, annular flange that extends outwardly from the interior of said body in a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the vertical axis of said body, said outwardly extending flange also defining a removable section, the outer peripheral edge of said outwardly extending flange integrally carrying a top portion comprising an upstanding annular member that carries across its upper surface a top closure member, the inner diameter of said annular member being greater than the outer diameter of said side wall means so that said annular member can fit down over an outer upper portion of said side wall means, said top closure member having a flange portion around its periphery which flange portion extends inwardly from said annular member into the interior of said body for a distance greater than said outwardly extending flange extends outwardly so that even though said annular member can pass downwardly around the outer periphery of said side Wall means this downward travel is terminated by the abutment of the lower surface of said inwardly extending flange against the upper edge of said side wall means when said outwardly extending flange has been removed, said annular member also carrying a single roll of individual, spaced apart thread means each of which has a fixed length with definite end points that are spaced from the end points of adjacent thread means in said single roll of thread means, the length of said individual thread means being substantially the same as that of the individual thread means carried by said side wall means, one end point of each individual thread means carried by said annular member being higher than the other, the high end point on any given individual thread means on said annular member corresponding to the high end point of any given thread means on said side wall means, said annular member carrying a single, individual thread means for each single, individual thread means on said side wall means, each individual thread means on said annular member being spaced substantially above its corresponding thread means on said side wall means, the individual thread means on said annular member being adapted to abut and interlock with the thread means on said side wall means when said annular member is passed downwardly over said side wall means and then rotated in a plane substantially perpendicular to the vertical axis of said body, the top closure member of said top portion carrying two spaced apart substantially hemispherical, upstanding bosses, the flat portions of said upstanding hemispherical bosses facing one another, a top handle means that is narrower than the flat portions of said hemispherical bosses and that bridges upper surfaces of said bosses so that the bottom of said handle means is spaced above said top closure member, a boss integrally connected between the substantial midpoint of said top handle means and said top closure member, the vertical spacing between corresponding individual thread means on said annular member and said side wall means being such that when said outwardly extending flange is removed and the top lowered until the inwardly extending flange stops the downward movement by abutting the upper edge of said side wall means the thread means on the annular member of said top extend below the thread means on said side wall means, said article thereby being convertible to a con pletely functional container having a removable and lockable top solely by removing said outwardly extending flange.

2. The article according to claim 1 wherein said midpoint boss on said top extends laterally from said top handle means to either edge of said top closure member.

3. A receptacle comprising a body portion having a base and upstanding side wall means depending upwardly from said base, said side wall means having near the upper edge thereof handles defined by at least two indentations extending from the otuer surface of said side wall means into the interior of said body, said indentations being on substantially opposite sides of said body portion and having a substantially fiat upper surface for gripping, said side wall means having in a plane substantially perpendicular to the vertical axis of said body a single row of individual and separated thread means, each of said individual thread means having a fixed length with definite end points, the end points of each individual thread means being spaced a substantial distance from the end points of the adjacent thread means in said single row of thread means, each of said thread means having one end point higher than the other on said side wall means so that each individual thread means slants downwardly from said high end point to the other end point thereof, each thread means having the same end point as the high end point so that each individual thread means slants downwardly in the same direction as the remaining individual thread means, an annular portion of said side wall means extending above said thread means and terminating in an upper edge of said body portion which upper edge is of substantially the same thickness as the thickness of said side wall means, a removable top comprising a bottom portion composed of an upstanding annular member that carries across the upper surface thereof a closure member, the inner diameter of said annular member being greater than the outer diameter of said side wall means so that said annular member can fit down over an outer, upper portion of said side wall means, said top closure member having a flange portion around its periphery that extends inwardly from said annular member into the interior of said body for a distance such that when said top is lowered down over an upper portion of the side wall means the downward travel of the top is terminated by the abutment of the lower surface of the inwardly extending flange of the top against said upper edge of said body portion, said annular member carrying a single row of individual, spaced apart thread means, each of which also have a fixed length with definite end points that are spaced from the end points of adjacent thread means, the lengths of said thread means being substantially the same as the thread means on said side wall means, said thread means on said annular member being adapted to coact with and interlock with thread means on said side walls means, one end point of each individual thread means being higher than the other, the high end point on any given individual thread means on said annular member corresponding to the high end point of any given individual thread means on said side wall means so that the individual thread means carried by said annular member slant downwardly in the same direction as the individual thread means carried by said side wall means, said annular member carrying an individual thread means for each individual thread means on said side wall means, the top closure member also carrying two spaced apart substantially hemispherical upstanding bosses, the fiat portions of said upstanding hemispherical bosses facing one another, a top handle means that is narrower than the flat portions of said hemispherical bosses and that bridges the upper portions of said bosses so that the bottom of said handle means is spaced above said top closure member, a boss integrally connected between a substantial midpoint of said top handle means and said top closure member, the vertical spacing between corresponding thread means on said annular member and said side wall means being such that when the top has been lowered over said side wall means to the point where said inwardly extending flange of said top abuts the upper edge of said side wall means the thread means on said annular member of said top extend below the thread means on said side wall means and when the top is twisted to bring the thread means on said annular member into contact with the thread means on said side wall means the top is locked onto the body.

4. The receptacle according to claim 3 wherein said midpoint boss of said top handle extends laterally from said top handle substantially to either edge of said top closure member.

5. The receptacle according to claim 3 wherein said parts are composed of a thermoplasticmaterial.

6. The receptacle according to claim 3 wherein said thermoplastic is polyethylene.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,816,682 12/ 1957 Brucker 22Q-40 2,907,491 10/1959 Gunn 22040 3,198,375 8/1965 Hunter 220- JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner. THERON E. CONDON, G. T. HALL, Examiners. 

